Stuffed Aubergine

This was my first time trying aubergine and it definitely paid off. I was a little sceptical after hollowing it out, the flesh didn’t look appetising at all, but after it had cooked off in the mince it sort of melted away. The mince was really tasty, it had a selection of spices in it including cinnamon, turmeric, paprika and garam masala and a few veggies including carrots, onion and mushrooms. It took around 30-40 minutes to cook in the oven – it was worth it.

Recipe: (serves 2):

200g of mince

1 carrot, thinly sliced

1 onion, thinly sliced

5-6 button mushrooms, thinly sliced

1 tablespoon of tomato paste

1 teaspoon of all of the following: cinnamon, paprika and garam masala

1 large aubergine

Cut the aubergine in half and hollow out the centre. Do not throw this away but add to a frying pan ready for in a few minutes time. Make sure the aubergine is not hollowed out so much so that it falls apart of becomes floppy but enough to allow a good portion of rice to fit in the centre. Once this is done, add the excess aubergine meat to a frying pan with the mince using some FryLight. Once the mince has browned add the spices and the remaining vegetables. Finally, add the tomato paste. Go back to the aubergine and spray some FryLight on it so both the skin and hollowed out centre have a bit of oil on them. Add the mince, equally, to both halves and pop in the oven for around 30 minutes. Ensure the aubergine is cooked for eating as it might need slightly longer but keep an eye of the mince as it might need stirring every now and again. Sprinkle feta on top if you like too!

I made the raita, mainly to use up some greek yoghurt in the fridge, it was great though and I made flashbacks of sitting on a beachside restaurant in Kefalonia or Corfu in Greece. Don’t worry I am aware that raita is an Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi dish but the cool cucumber and GREEK yoghurt just took me right back. Cut up as much cucumber as you think you would like and coat in Greek yoghurt. I grated some of the cucumber and kept some chunky and it tasted great!